If you’re developing web apps, the need to optimize them for display on mobile devices becomes ever more important. A new survey of cell phone internet use shows that more than half of adult cell phone owners use their phone to go online.

If you’re developing web apps, the need to optimize them for display on mobile devices becomes ever more important. A new survey of cell phone internet use shows that 88% of U.S. adults own a cell phone of some kind as of April 2012 and that more than half (55%) of them use their phone to go online. Indeed of the group of "cell internet users ", 31 per cent say the cell phone is their main method of going online. In total this means their phone is the main method of access for 17 per cent of all cell phone users.

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The research was carried out by Pew Internet among adults in the USA as part of its Internet & American Life Project.

The number of adult cell phone owners who are using the internet on their mobile phones has doubled over the last three years, according to Pew’s figures. The trend is particularly noticeable among young adults. Nearly half of all 18-29 year olds (45 per cent) who use the internet on their cell phones do most of their online browsing on their mobile device.

The trend is also important in other users groups. Half of African-American cell internet users do most of their online browsing on their phone, double the proportion for whites, and 42 per cent of Latino cell internet users also fall into the “cell-mostly” category.

The people who do the majority of their online browsing on their phone say that it is more convenient and their mobile devices are available no matter where they want to browse. A small group (10 per cent) have to use their cell phone because they don’t have access to more traditional means of browsing.

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